The Vow
by Jammar Starlines
Summary: An AU Story... What would happen if Voyager got home and the Maquis were not quite accepted as a part of the Voyager family by Starfleet and everyone else back home. **PLEASE R/R** (Review one of mine and I'll review one of yours)


Disclaimer: Paramount *shudder* owns all and I'm just a weakling who is borrowing the characters but I promise to return the all safe and sound to their beds when I'm done.  
  
The Vow  
  
By: Jennifer Arrowsmith  
  
Kathryn Janeway sat back into her chair, and rubbed the back of her neck. For the past three years she felt as if she had never had a break. She and her crew were caught in the middle of someone else's war, and day after day she put her life in danger to save her crew, her family. She looked over at her first officer, and she smiled at him. He smiled back as he took her hand in his. She sighed, and looked over where her pilot sat.  
  
"Mr. Paris set a course for home, warp factor seven!" The sandy-haired pilot shifted around in his chair.  
  
"Um Captain, I can't do that!"  
  
Both Janeway and Chakotay shifted in their seats as she impatiently ask Tom why not.  
  
"My instruments are telling me that we ARE home!"  
  
The crew started whispering to each other trying to find out if it was true. Were they home? Janeway stood up, and walked toward Tom Paris. "Quiet!" she shouted. The crew fell dead silent. As she looked down at the readings a shimmering light appeared.  
  
"Q!" hollered the entire bridge crew.  
  
"Q Jr." said Janeway in a stern voice, "Is this your doing?"  
  
"Well, actually, we both may have had something to do with that!"  
  
"What do you mean Q?"  
  
"Well, it's not everyday that the godmother of my son gets married (she married Chakotay). So I asked Q Jr. what he thought would be the perfect gift for you two, and he decided that the perfect gift would be to send you home!"  
  
"Why? I thought that he wanted us to stay here since he hates visiting the Alpha Quadrant, and that he wanted us to be near him!"  
  
"Yes, but he also wants his Auntie Kathryn to be happy, and this is the only way that he could think of to make you happy!"  
  
"Well, thank you, Q Jr.! You have made me, and the rest of the crew, very happy, and please still come and visit us every once in a while!"  
  
"Don't worry Auntie I'll visit!" he shouted as he ran into her arms. "I'm going to be six in..." he trailed of as he began to think, "in um... two weeks, three days, eight hours, forty five minutes, and 28, 27, 26..." he announced as his father interrupted him.  
  
"We get the picture son!"  
  
"Sorry daddy!"  
  
"Well when that time comes you make sure that you come and visit me, so that I can give you a present. All right?" she whispered into his ear so that his father wouldn't overhear.  
  
"Sure thing, Auntie Kathryn!" he whispered back.  
  
"We have to go now before the wife gets mad. If that happens she won't let us come to visit anymore! Bye!"  
  
"Q," Kathryn said quickly, "How can I repay you?"  
  
"Let me be the godfather of your unborn child," he stated as they shimmered out of sight. Janeway looked down at her stomach then over at Chakotay in confusion.  
  
"Um, Captain, we're being hailed!" laughed Harry Kim, the ship's youngest ensign and also their youngest crew-member, who could actually walk, talk, and work!  
  
"Well on screen then," she ordered as she sat down once again.  
  
"Captain, we can't get a visual, only audio."  
  
"Well, that will just have to do now, won't it?"  
  
*Hello! This is Starfleet command, and you are? *  
  
"This is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Starship Voyager. May I ask who I am speaking to?" "No need to Captain that's my father, Owen Paris. Hello sir." Tom stated flatly. He turned to look at his fiancee, B'Elanna Torres, to see that she was already staring at him.  
  
*Hello Lt. Paris. Now Captain you have a lot of explaining to do once you get docked. There will be an opening at dock number three in about half an hour. If you wouldn't mind waiting that is. *  
  
"Of course we won't mind waiting!" she replied, looking down at Tom.  
  
*End channel! * Owen Paris quickly ordered on the other end.  
  
"Tom, what was that all about?" asked B'Elanna, sounding a little worried.  
  
"Nothing to concern yourself about. Once we're docked I'll straighten everything out."  
  
Forty-five minutes later...  
  
"Hello, Kathryn. It's good to have you home finally!" said Admiral Paris as the crew of Voyager stepped out of the ship that had been their home for just over eight years.  
  
"It's good to be home!" she replied, shaking his hand.  
  
"Captain, will you please come with me?" said one of the medical officers who had been waiting for the ship to dock.  
  
"May I please ask you why?"  
  
"It's just a routine checkup that we do now when ships come back after being away on long missions, and you have been on a long mission!"  
  
"Indeed! But what is this routine check up for?"  
  
"It is to see if you have any illnesses that you didn't know about, or that you could not detect with your inferior equipment."  
  
Janeway wondered why the Vulcan was so rude.  
  
"Well, then, why don't you start with the members of astrophysics? They are the ones that have been on the most away missions!"  
  
"Actually, Captain, we always start with the senior staff."  
  
"Oh, well, in that case, I will come with you. Come along Chakotay!"  
  
"Actually, one of my staff will look after him," he stated with a cold tone to his voice.  
  
"No. My husband will come with me!" Kathryn replied as she took his hand.  
  
"Of course!" he replied. "Right this way."  
  
In the main Med. Bay...  
  
"Captain did you know that there is a life form growing inside you?" the Vulcan asked as he put away the instruments that he had been using. After the doctor had said this Kathryn got a confused look on her face, and Chakotay fainted.  
  
"No, I didn't know that! What kind of life form is it?"  
  
"Captain do not worry it will not harm you, and it's a human life form that is about two months old!"  
  
"You mean that I'm having a child?"  
  
"Precisely!"  
  
"Vulcans!" whispered the Captain under her breath.  
  
"Pardon me?"  
  
"Oh nothing doctor!"  
  
By this time Chakotay was starting to come to. "Did he say what I think he said?" wondered Chakotay.  
  
"What about me being pregnant?" And with that Chakotay fainted again.  
  
Meanwhile on the Promenade...  
  
"Dad, look, I love B'Elanna very much, and no matter what you say, I'm going to marry her!" "No son of mine is marrying a Maquis, even if you do love her!"  
  
"One, she's a former Maquis. Two, I'm a former Maquis as well. Does that mean that you don't want me in your family either?"  
  
"No, because you are my son, and you always will be, no matter what you do."  
  
"Yeah, well dad, that is how I feel about B'Elanna, and that is why I'm going to marry her. Good Bye!" Tom said as he walked away, and went to talk to B'Elanna.  
  
"Oh, and dad, it's Lt. Commander now. I got promoted!" he stated flatly without even bothering to turn around.  
  
At a press conference about an hour later...  
  
The senior staff aboard Voyager stepped onto the stage, and was intercepted by yelling, and screaming from the audience.  
  
"Get the Maquis off the stage! We don't want them here!" chanted just about everyone in the crowd.  
  
"Chakotay, B'Elanna, and all of the rest of you, are under arrest!" said two of the many security guards that were there to take away all of the Maquis crew.  
  
"Wait a minute! That is my husband, and those are our friends that you are dragging away. He is also the father of my child," yelled Janeway as they started to take Chakotay away. After she said this two women stepped forward to talk to her.  
  
"What do you mean he's your husband?" yelled the taller of the two women.  
  
"I mean that I am married to him, mother, and I have been for a little over a year now!"  
  
"How could you marry a Maquis officer?" yelled the other woman.  
  
"It was easy after I realized that I loved him. I went to the holodeck, stepped up to the altar, and said 'I do!' Come on, sis, don't tell me that you still don't know what love is after all these years?"  
  
"But Kathryn, he's a Maquis!" said her mother.  
  
"Well, in my eyes, he's the man that I love, and always will love! Now we'll talk about this later. I have more important things to take care of first." she stated as she walked off the stage toward the Admiral.  
  
"Dad, let them go! If you're going to arrest them for things that they did a long time ago, you might as well arrest the entire crew of Voyager, because we all have done things that are against the Federation's rules," yelled Tom to his father who was sitting in the front row.  
  
"Yes, but son, I only know about what they did!"  
  
"So! That was over eight years ago. Are you going to arrest me too? I used to be part of the Maquis as well!"  
  
"Yes, but you paid for what you did. They haven't!"  
  
"You were willing to have me stay in that jail for the rest of my life to pay for what I did, and now you're saying that I've already paid? Dad, you are such a hypocrite!"  
  
"Do you realize who you are taking to?"  
  
"Yes! A father who doesn't even care about anything except rules. Not even your own family matters more! What about Seven of nine, are you going to arrest her, because she used to be Borg?"  
  
"No, because she has changed! Plus, she is not Borg anymore!"  
  
"They have changed as well, and they're not Maquis anymore!"  
  
"They are going to pay just like you did! Now, son, this discussion is over with! Take them away!"  
  
"Dad, they have paid!" he yelled as they took the woman that he loved away.  
  
"Admiral Paris may I please speak with you in private?" asked Janeway as she watched her husband get dragged away from her.  
  
"Of course, Kathryn, come right this way!"  
  
"Admiral Paris?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"It's Captain Janeway to you...sir!"  
  
In the Admiral's office...  
  
"Now, Captain, what would you like?"  
  
"I want my husband and the rest of my crew back. If I had known that we were going to be separated when we got home I never would have let Q bring us home!"  
  
"Look Kath...Captain Janeway, I just can't let them go. Besides, you knew when you went out on the mission that you couldn't get close to any of them, because they would have to go to jail!"  
  
"But Admiral, they have proven themselves time and time again that they can be trusted. Plus, most of them are more talented than any Starfleet officer that I have ever seen. Take B'Elanna, for example. You know the one that your son wants, and is going to marry..." Janeway went on to tell Admiral Paris of all of the achievements that the Maquis and also her original crew had accomplished over the past eight years.  
  
"Now, do you see why we need them as part of our crew?"  
  
"No, I still don't understand why they are so important!"  
  
"They are important because they helped us! If it weren't for them we never would have made it home or even half as far as we did! We still need them! That is if you want the crew of Voyager to stay in Starfleet!"  
  
"Captain, you can't possibly say that! Your entire crew can't feel the same way!"  
  
"Oh, but they do, Admiral! We've had over eight years, to decide as a crew, that we all want to stay together, no matter what!"  
  
"Okay, since you are so persistent, I'll let them go on one condition! If they all take a standard Starfleet test, and if they pass it, then they can become a part of Starfleet."  
  
"Thank you, Admiral!"  
  
Conclusion...  
  
Three months later, Tom and B'Elanna finally got married with Admiral Paris's blessing. Four months after that Kathryn gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, and Janeway and Chakotay named her Melissa. At the same time, B'Elanna found out that she was pregnant with twins, one boy, and one girl, who Tom, and B'Elanna later named Mike, Cheyenne. All of the former Maquis from Voyager took the test, and they all passed with ease. Although Starfleet tried to separate them, the crew of Voyager stayed together, because they had vowed to keep the crew together in the beginning, and they vowed to stay together until the end.  
  
FINIS 


End file.
